


Secrets

by coralysendria



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb)
Genre: 5 Things, Gen, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-20 19:29:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1522853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coralysendria/pseuds/coralysendria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five secrets Aunt May keeps from Peter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secrets

"Secrets have a cost. They're not free. Not now, not ever."  
\-- May Parker

"We all have secrets: the ones we keep...and the ones that are kept from us."  
\-- The Doctor

I.

May Parker knows Norman Osborn, the founder and CEO of Oscorp. Oh, not well, and she very much doubted that he would know her these days, but once upon a time, she worked at Oscorp as a receptionist. While there was a sharp divide between the exalted science staff and the office staff who kept the company running -- they didn't even drink the same coffee -- Norman Osborn was the bridge between the two. Courteous and charming, he always had a friendly word for _everyone_ on the staff, even the mail guy.

May remembers being so very impressed that _Norman Osborn_ knew her name. 

She doesn't remember precisely when she began to see under Osborn's polished facade, but sooner or later, she saw the smiles and the courtesy for the surface glitter it was. Maybe it was when he walked right past her in the hallway when she was struggling to juggle too many things in her hands. Maybe it was the time he fired a lab technician for a minor infraction and staged a scene in the lobby. Maybe it was that time when he shouted at his little boy in front of dozens of people about what an embarrassment the child was. Certainly it was before Richard Parker came to work for Oscorp. May doesn't remember. She just remembers that by the time she left Oscorp, she rather disliked Mr. Norman Osborn.

II.

When Richard and Mary first brought Peter to live with her and Ben, May was dismayed. It wasn't that she and Ben didn't want children; they very much did. But her first pregnancy ended disastrously, and she was never able, after that, to have children. She loved children, but she had resigned herself to never having any, so her life was not constructed around having a child in the house. Having Peter there, even temporarily, meant completely rearranging their lives, and when Richard and Mary died in that accident, and May and Ben became Peter's guardians, everything had to change. 

May had to quit her job -- she was working as a library aide then -- in order to stay home with Peter, and things were tough for a little while, until the call from the lawyer's office came. Peter's parents, it seemed, had set up a trust for Peter's benefit, with her and Ben as the trustees. It wasn't a lot of money, but it was enough to get by, especially after Peter won a Stark Industries scholarship that enabled him to attend Midtown Science instead of the local public school. 

It was her fervent hope that Stark Industries was paying attention to Peter's school progress; it would be a good place for him to work when he was older. She hoped he would stay far, far away from Oscorp, because whatever Richard and Mary had been running from that night, it had to do with their employers.

III.

May knows Peter's secret. He thinks he has her fooled along with the rest of the city, but he is still so young; he hasn't really learned how to hide things from those he loves yet. Besides, if he really wanted to keep it a secret, he should have cleaned up his web-shooter experiments in the basement better.

While May is terrified for her young -- so young! -- nephew, she is also extremely proud of him. Nevertheless, she wonders if there was something she could have done to prevent his need to prowl the night. Thinking back on it, she realizes that he came into his powers -- whatever they are -- before the night Ben was killed. And that, she thinks, is it. That is why Peter started going into the night. But something changed in him, and it became more than a need for vengeance or closure.

There is nothing, she knows, that she can do to prevent it, other than turn him in to the police -- which she would never do. So she lives with fear and pride warring in her heart, wondering if she is going to see a night when Peter doesn't come home.

IV.

A few days after the Lizard Incident, as people are starting to call it, May answers a knock at the door to find a soberly dressed man on her porch. He holds up a black leather ID folder.

"Good morning, Mrs. Parker," he says, "I'm Agent Philip Coulson with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."

"That's quite a mouthful," she responds, examining the ID. SHIELD? She doesn't think she has heard of this particular agency before. At least the acronym is vaguely reassuring. Vaguely.

Agent Coulson smiles faintly. "Yes. May I come in? I'd like to talk to you about your nephew Peter."

May's hand rises of its own accord to her throat. "Peter? Is he--?"

"Peter is fine, Mrs. Parker," Agent Coulson says, "and as far as I know, he is still in his third period biology class."

May's eyes close briefly, and her hand goes to the door jamb for support. "Then why are you here?"

"Mrs. Parker, it really would be better to discuss this inside."

May nods, and steps aside, holding the door for the agent, and gesturing him on into the living room. In the kitchen, the tea kettle begins to whistle. "Have a seat, Agent Coulson. Would you care for some tea?"

"That would be lovely," he says gravely. "Thank you." He takes a careful seat on the couch as May hurries into the kitchen. She rattles around gathering tea things, wondering why a federal agent would be in her house about Peter. It can only be because of Spider-Man. She wonders if she can manage to allay this Agent Coulson's suspicions without getting Peter into any further trouble.

When she returns to the living room, Agent Coulson is patiently waiting on the couch. She puts the tray she is carrying on the side table within his reach and hands him a cup. He does not reach for either the sugar or the milk. She puts a bit of milk in her cup and settles nervously into her chair. The plate of cookies remains untouched.

Coulson balances his cup and saucer on his knee. Somehow, May finds that easy competence and disregard for possible spills frightening. To cover it, she sips her tea. It's a little too warm, even with the milk. 

He watches her, still with that faint smile on his face. He looks, she thinks, like an accountant. She knows he is not. He picks up the cup and drinks from it, giving it an appreciative nod. "That is very good tea, Mrs. Parker."

"Tea is one of my few indulgences."

His smile grows more pronounced for a moment. "Good tea is a wonderful thing." The smile vanishes. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Parker, I'm making you nervous."

"Yes," she agrees, her voice a bit sharper than intended. "Yes, you are."

He nods. "I apologize. I'll come straight to the point of my visit, then. Mrs. Parker, SHIELD would like to recruit Peter."

She stares at him, dumbfounded, certain she cannot have heard correctly. "Recruit...Peter?"

He takes a cookie from the plate, breaks it precisely in half. Setting one half on the edge of his saucer, he dunks the other half in his tea, and takes a bite, making appreciative noises as he chews. Despite herself, May relaxes a tiny bit at this show of humanity. He washes the bite of cookie down with another swallow of tea.

"Did you bake the cookies also, Mrs. Parker? They're quite tasty."

"Yes, I did. Thank you. What do you mean 'recruit Peter?'"

"Mrs. Parker, SHIELD is aware that Peter is Spider-Man."

Her cup clatters against the saucer as she sets it down. Her laugh sounds false even to herself. "What a ridiculous thing to say, Agent Coulson! Peter's a boy! In school!"

Agent Coulson nods. "Yes. He is. And he is also Spider-Man. As you know. I'm sorry, Mrs. Parker, but we have proof, and I'm very much afraid that others have it, too. Others who would not have Peter's best interests at heart."

"And SHIELD does?" May says drily.

"Much more so than others might," Coulson replies. He sets aside his empty tea cup.

"Would you like another cup?" May asks automatically.

"No, thank you. Mrs. Parker, SHIELD can offer Peter protection against his enemies. Make no mistake; he has annoyed some pretty important people in the last few weeks."

"Why are you talking to me about this? Why not Peter?"

"Because Peter is still a minor, and you're his guardian, Mrs. Parker. SHIELD is technically offering Peter a job, even though we have no plans -- at present -- to approach him until he reaches his majority. For now, we would prefer not to have Peter aware that we would be watching over him."

"More secrets."

"Yes. I'm sorry. But you'd have help keeping this one. There is video footage of Peter without his mask, Mrs. Parker. SHIELD can suppress it. If we call in a favor from Tony Stark, we can make it disappear altogether."

"Tony Stark?" A thought occurs to her. "You're not behind Peter winning that scholarship, are you?"

Coulson shakes his head. "No. Peter did that on his own. Mr. Stark is a SHIELD consultant. Along with Iron Man. With his help, all of the footage of Peter without his mask can be destroyed. All of it."

As Coulson had no doubt intended, the mention of Tony Stark helps May get over the last of her nerves. "And what would Peter have to do for SHIELD in return for this protection, Agent Coulson?"

"At the moment, nothing. Continue his education. Try to get back in Miss Stacy's good graces, if that's what he wants. We want him to have as normal a life as possible for a teenaged superhero, Mrs. Parker. Only a dire emergency would make us call for his aid -- and given what we have already observed, chances are good that he'd already be responding."

"I presume you have a contract?"

"Of course." He pulls an envelope from his inner jacket pocket and extends it to her. The envelope is thinner than she would have expected.

She takes it and pulls the contract out. She reads it through. It's very straightforward. She is surprised to find that SHIELD is offering a stipend in addition to their monitoring and protection. She is additionally surprised to find that such monitoring and protection extends to herself, but thinking about it, she can see the sense of that precaution.

"This stipend -- can it be deposited into a trust fund, rather than given to Peter directly?"

"Of course. It wouldn't have come to Peter directly, in any case, unless we approached him directly. Given the loss of your husband's income, Mrs. Parker, we thought it might be simpler to send the stipend directly to you on Peter's behalf."

May shakes her head. "We'll get by. Put it in the bank for him, and he'll have it later."

Coulson nods. "As you prefer."

May sighs. "I would prefer that Peter were just an ordinary teenager, but something tells me that's no longer possible." She accepts a pen from Coulson, and pauses. "Does SHIELD know what happened to Peter?"

Coulson shakes his head. "No, Mrs. Parker, we don't. We suspect that it had something to do with his many visits to Oscorp and Dr. Connor, though, given Dr. Connor's focus on genetic manipulation."

"Oscorp! Peter was going to Oscorp?" May considers what she knows about Norman Osborne and Dr. Connor, who was a friend of Peter's father. She narrows her eyes, then signs the contract with a flourish and hands it back to Coulson. He signs also, then hands the signed contract back to her.

"You keep the original, Mrs. Parker. The pen transmitted your signature to the electronic copy we keep at SHIELD."

"Very fancy."

Coulson shrugs. "When you have Tony Stark for a consultant, you can sometimes get the good toys."

Despite herself, May smiles. "I'll have to see if I can get to know him, then."

"It can be arranged," Coulson offers.

"Don't be ridiculous!" She considers it for a moment. "Though Peter might get a kick out of it...and I'd rather he were hanging out at Stark Industries than at Oscorp."

"As I said, it can be arranged."

May shakes her head. "Never you mind, Agent Coulson. Even though Tony Stark has turned over a new leaf, I don't think he's the best role model for a teenager, do you?"

"Perhaps not." He stands and May stands with him. "Mrs. Parker, thank you for the tea and cookie. Thank you for signing the contract. And don't worry. This is a good thing."

"If you say so, Agent Coulson." She walks him to the door and shakes his hand, watching as he gets in his car and drives off. She shakes her head. She hopes she has done the right thing.

V.

Peter has long been embarrassed by the scrapbooks and photo albums that May keeps. She has photos going all the way back to his birth -- though the number increases dramatically after he comes to live with her and Ben. The scrapbooks are kept on a shelf in the living room, and every so often, May good-humoredly admonishes Peter to bring that lovely girl Gwen around so that she can show her the scrapbooks.

Peter laughs. "No way am I gonna let her see those things, Aunt May!"

"We'll see about that, young man," May calls after him as he runs out the door. He has yet to bring Gwen home, but May is certain that it's only a matter of time.

What Peter does not know is that May has a small locked box that she keeps in the back of her underwear drawer. (She figures that the idea of old lady underwear is sufficient to keep Peter from snooping, even if he were the snooping type. She's reasonably certain that SHIELD is aware of the box, however. They may _claim_ that they're only watching the _outside_ of the house, but May doesn't trust them.) This box is stuffed full of photographs and newspaper clippings related to Spider-Man. There are copies of all of Peter's own photographs, which May came across one day while cleaning. There are carefully bagged bits of webbing that she found in the basement, and an empty ampoule with the Oscorp logo on it. That Peter is still having anything to do with Oscorp makes her very nervous, but there is little she can do about it. 

This is the box where she keeps the SHIELD contract, and this is the box where she is today putting the latest report from SHIELD. If this goes on much longer, she is going to have to get a larger box. She stuffs the report into the box, locks it, and shoves it back into the drawer.

She sighs. There will come a time when she does not have to keep all of these secrets, a time when Peter will be ready for them. She only hopes that when the time comes, she is able to control it. But for now, in order to protect her nephew, she keeps her silence, and prays that even if he comes home battered and aching, he continues to come home.


End file.
